At the Gates of Spiritual Science
GA 95
24 August 1906, Stuttgart
3. Life of the Soul in Kamaloka
How does man spend the period between death and a new birth? To call death the elder brother of sleep is not unjustified, for between sleep and death there is a certain relationship; but even so there is a great, decisive difference between them. Let us consider what happens to a man from the moment when he falls asleep to the moment when he wakes up. This stretch of time appears to us as a kind of unconsciousness; only a few memories of the dream-state, sometimes confused and sometimes fairly clear, emerge from it. If we want to understand sleep properly, we must recall the separate members of the human entity.
We have seen that man consists of seven members. Four are fully developed, the fifth only partly so, and of the sixth and seventh only the seed and outline so far exist. Thus we have:
- The physical body, which we can perceive with our ordinary senses.
- The etheric body, which permeates the physical body with a delicate luminosity.
- The astral body.
- The Ego-body or consciousness body.
This “Ego-body” contains:
- Spirit-Self, or Manas, partly developed, party still in embryo.
- Life-Spirit, or Buddhi.
- Spirit-Man, or Atma.
These last two are present only as seeds.
In the waking state a man has the first four of these bodies around him in space. The etheric body extends a little beyond the physical body on all sides. The astral body extends about two-and-a-half times the length of the head beyond the physical body, surrounds it like a cloud and fades away as you go from the head downwards. When a man falls asleep, the physical and etheric bodies remain on the bed, united as in the daytime. The astral body loosens its hold, and the astral body and Ego-body raise themselves out of the physical body. Now since all perceptions, concepts and so on are dependent on the astral body, which is now outside the physical body, man loses consciousness in sleep, for in this life he needs the physical brain as an instrument of consciousness; without it he cannot be conscious.
What does the loosened astral body do during the night? A clairvoyant can see that it has a specific task. It does not, as some Theosophists will tell you, merely hover above the physical body, inactive, like a passive image; it works continuously on the physical body. During the day the physical body gets tired and used up, and the task of the astral body is to make good this weariness and exhaustion. It renovates the physical body and renews the forces which have been used up during the day. Hence comes the need for sleep, and hence also its refreshing, healing effect. The question of dreams we will deal with later.
When a man dies, things are different. The etheric body then leaves him, as well as the astral body and Ego. These three bodies rise away and for a time remain united. At the moment of death the connection between the astral body and etheric body, on the one hand, and with the physical body, on the other, is broken, particularly in the region of the heart. A sort of light shines forth in the heart, and then the etheric body, the astral body and the Ego can be seen rising up from out of the head.
The actual instant of death brings a remarkable experience: for a brief space of time the man remembers all that has happened to him in the life just ended. His entire life appears before his soul in a moment, like a great tableau. Something like this can happen during life, in rare moments of great shock or anger—for instance a man who is drowning, or falling from a great height, when death seems imminent, may see his whole life before him in this way.
A similar phenomenon is the peculiar tingling feeling we have when a limb “goes to sleep”. What happens here is that the etheric body is loosened. If a finger, for example, goes to sleep, a clairvoyant would see a little second finger protruding at the side of the actual finger: this is a part of the etheric body which has got loose. Herein also lies the danger of hypnotism, for the brain then has the same experience as the finger has when it goes to sleep. The clairvoyant can see the loosened etheric body hanging like a pair of bags or sacks on either side of the head. If the hypnotism is repeated, the etheric body will develop an inclination to get loose, and this can be very dangerous. The victims become dreamy, subject to fainting fits, lose their independence, and so on.
A similar loosening of the etheric body occurs when a person is faced with a sudden danger of death. The cause of this similarity is that the etheric body is the bearer of memory; the more strongly developed it is, the stronger a person's faculty of memory will be. While the etheric body is firmly rooted in the physical body, as normally it is, its vibrations cannot act on the brain sufficiently to become conscious, because the physical body with its coarser rhythms conceals them. But in moments of deadly danger the etheric body is loosened, and with its memories it detaches itself from the brain and a man's whole life flashes before his soul. At such moments everything that has been inscribed on the etheric body reappears; hence also the recollection of the whole past life immediately after death. This lasts for some time, until the etheric body separates from the astral body and the Ego.
With most people, the etheric body dissolves gradually into the world-ether. With lowly, uneducated people it dissolves slowly; with cultivated people it dissolves quickly; with disciples or pupils it dissolves slowly again, and the higher a man's development, the slower the process becomes, until finally a stage is reached when the etheric body dissolves no longer.
In the case of ordinary men, then, we have two corpses, of the physical and etheric bodies; we are left with the astral body and the Ego. If we are to understand this condition we must realise that in his earthly life a man's consciousness depends entirely on his senses. Let us think away everything that comes to us through our senses: without our eyes, absolute darkness; without our ears, absolute silence; and no feeling of heat or cold without the appropriate senses. If we can clearly envisage what will remain when we are parted from all our physical organs, from everything that normally fills our daytime consciousness and enlivens the soul, from everything for which we have to be grateful to the body all day long, we shall begin to form some conception of what the condition of life is after death, when the two corpses have been laid aside. This condition is called Kamaloka, the place of desires. It is not some region set apart: Kamaloka is where we are, and the spirits of the dead are always hovering around us, but they are inaccessible to our physical senses. What, then, does a dead man feel? To take a simple example, suppose a man eats avidly and enjoys his food. The clairvoyant will see the satisfaction of his desire as a brownish-red thought-form in the upper part of his astral body. Now suppose the man dies: what is left to him is his desire and capacity for enjoyment. To the physical part of a man belongs only the means of enjoyment: thus we need gums and so forth in order to eat. The pleasure and the desire belong to the soul, and they survive after death. But the man no longer has any means of satisfying his desires, for the appropriate organs are absent. And this applies to all kinds of wishes and desires. He may want to look at some beautiful arrangements of colours—but he lacks eyes; or to listen to some harmonious music—but he lacks ears.
How does the soul experience all this after death? The soul is like a wanderer in the desert, suffering from a burning thirst and looking for some spring at which to quench it; and the soul has to suffer this burning thirst because it has no organ or instrument for satisfying it. It has to feel deprived of everything, so that to call this condition one of burning thirst is very appropriate. This is the essence of Kamaloka. The soul is not tortured from outside, but has to suffer the torment of the desires it still has but cannot satisfy.
Why does the soul have to endure this torment? The reason is that man has to wean himself gradually from these physical wishes and desires, so that the soul may free itself from the Earth, may purify and cleanse itself. When that is achieved, the Kamaloka period comes to an end and man ascends to Devachan.
How does the soul pass through its life in Kamaloka? In Kamaloka a man lives through his whole life again, but backwards. He goes through it, day by day, with all its experience's, events and actions, back from the moment of death to that of birth. What is the point of this? The point is that he has to pause at every event and learn how to wean himself from his dependence on the physical and material. He also relives everything he enjoyed in his earthly life, but in such a way that he has to do without all this; it offers him no satisfaction. And so he gradually learns to disengage himself from physical life. And when he has lived through his life right back to the day of his birth, he can, in the words of the Bible, enter into the “kingdom of Heaven”. As Christ says, “Unless ye became as little children, ye cannot enter the kingdom of Heaven.” All the Gospel sayings have a deep meaning, and we come to know their depth only by gradually entering into the divine wisdom.
There are some particular moments in Kamaloka which must be singled out as specially important and instructive. Among the various feelings a man can have as part of his ordinary life is the sheer joy of being alive, of living in a physical body. Hence he feels the lack of physical body as one of his worst deprivations. We can thus understand the terrible destiny and the horrible torments which have to be endured by the unfortunates who end their lives through suicide. When death comes naturally, the three bodies separate relatively easily. Even in apoplexy or any other sudden but natural form of death, the separation of these higher members has in fact been prepared for well in advance, and so they separate easily and the sense of loss of the physical body is only slight. But when the separation is as sudden and violent as it is with the suicide, whose whole organism is still healthy and firmly bound together, then immediately after death he feels the loss of the physical body very keenly and this causes terrible pains. This is a ghastly fate: the suicide feels as though he had been plucked out of himself, and he begins a fearful search for the physical body of which he was so suddenly deprived. Nothing else bears comparison with this. You may retort that the suicide who is weary of life no longer has any interest in it; otherwise he would not have killed himself. But that is a delusion, for it is precisely the suicide who wants too much from life. Because it has ceased to satisfy his desire for pleasure, or perhaps because some change of circumstances has involved him in a loss, he takes refuge in death. And that is why his feeling of deprivation when he finds himself without a body is unspeakably severe.
But Kamaloka is not so hard for everyone. If a man has been less dependent on material pleasures, he naturally finds the loss of his body easier to endure. Even he, however, has to shake himself free from his physical life, for there is a further meaning in Kamaloka. During his life a man does not merely do things which yield pleasure; he lives also in the company of other men and other creatures. Consciously or unconsciously, intentionally or unintentionally, he causes pleasure and pain, joy and sorrow, to animals and men. All such occasions he will encounter again as he lives through the Kamaloka period; he returns to the place and moment when he was the cause of pain to another being. At that time he made someone else feel pain; now he has to suffer the same pain in his own soul. All the torment I ever caused to other beings I now have to live through in my own soul. I enter into the person or the animal and come to know what the other being was made to suffer through me; now I have to suffer all these pains and torments myself. There is no way of avoiding it. All this is part of the process of freeing oneself—not from the working of karma, but from earthly things. A vivisectionist has a particularly terrible life in Kamaloka.
It is not for a Theosophist to criticise what goes on in the world around him, but he can well understand how it is that modern men have come to actions of this kind. In the Middle Ages no one would have ever dreamt of destroying life in order to understand it, and in ancient times any doctor would have looked on this as the height of madness. In the Middle Ages a number of people were still clairvoyant; doctors could see into a man and could discern any injury or defect in his physical body. So it was with Paracelsus,15Theophrastus Paracelsus von Hohenheim, 1493–1541. for example. But the material culture of modern times had to come, and with it a loss of clairvoyance. We see this particularly in our scientists and doctors; and vivisection is a result of it. In this way we can come to understand it, but we should never excuse or justify it. The consequences of a life which has been the cause of pain to others are bound to follow, and after death the vivisectionist has to endure exactly the same pains that he inflicted on animals. His soul is drawn into every pain he caused. It is no use saying that to inflict pain was not his intention, or that he did it for the sake of science or that his purpose was good. The law of spiritual life is inflexible.
How long does a man remain in Kamaloka? For about one-third of the length of his past life. If for instance he has lived for seventy-five years, his time in Kamaloka will be twenty-five years. And what happens then? The astral bodies of people vary widely in colour and form. The astral body of a primitive kind of man is permeated with all kinds of shapes and lower desires: its background colour is a reddish-grey, with rays of the same colour emanating from it; in its contours it is no different from that of certain animals. With a highly educated man, or an idealist such as Schiller or a saint such as St. Francis of Assisi,16Francis of Assisi, I 181–1226. things are quite different. They denied themselves many things; they ennobled their desires and so forth. The more a man uses his Ego to work on himself, the more rays will you see spreading out from the bluish sphere which is his Ego-centre. These rays indicate the forces by means of which a man gains power over his astral body. Hence one can say that a man has two astral bodies: one part has remained as it was, with its animal impulses; the other results from his own work upon it.
When a man has lived through his time in Kamaloka, he will be ready to raise the higher part of his astral body, the outcome of his own endeavours, and to leave the lower part behind. With savages and uncultivated people, a large part of the lower astral body remains behind; with more highly developed people there is much less. When for example a Francis of Assisi dies, very little will be left behind; a powerful higher astral body will go with him, for he will have worked greatly on himself. The remaining part is the third human corpse, consisting of the lower impulses and desires which have not been transmuted. This corpse continues to hover about in astral space, and may be a source of many dangerous influences.
This, too, is a body which can manifest in spiritualistic seances. It often survives for a long time, and may come to speak through a medium. People then begin to believe that it is the dead man speaking, when it is only his astral corpse. The corpse retains its lower impulses and habits in a kind of husk; it can even answer questions and give information, and can speak with just as much sense as the “lower man” used to display. All sorts of confusions may then arise, and a striking example of this is the pamphlet written by the spiritualist, Langsdorf, in which he professes to have had communication with H. P. Blavatsky.17Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, 1831–1891, known in theosophical circles as H.P.B. See the section, “Reincarnation” in Isis Unveiled, Chapter X. To Langsdorf the idea of reincarnation is like a red rag to a bull; there is nothing he would not do to refute this doctrine. He hates H.P.B. because she taught this doctrine and spread it abroad. In his pamphlet he purports to be quoting H.P.B. as having told him not only that the doctrine of reincarnation was false but that she was very sorry ever to have taught it. This may indeed be all correct—except that Langsdorf was not questioning and quoting the real H.P.B. but her astral corpse. It is quite understandable that her lower astral body should answer in this way if we remember that during her early period, in her Isis Unveiled, she really did reject and oppose the idea of reincarnation. She herself came to know better, but her error clung to her astral husk.
This third corpse, the astral husk, gradually dissolves, and it is important that it should have dissolved completely before a man returns to a new incarnation. In most cases this duly happens, but in exceptional cases a man may reincarnate quickly, before his astral corpse has dissolved. He has difficulties to face if, when he is about to reincarnate, he finds his own astral corpse still in existence, containing everything that had remained imperfect in his former life.
Dritter Vortrag
Wie ist der Aufenthalt des Menschen zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt?
Der Tod wird nicht mit Unrecht der ältere Bruder des Schlafes genannt, denn zwischen Schlaf und Tod besteht eine gewisse Verwandtschaft. Aber ebenso besteht wieder ein großer, gewaltiger Unterschied zwischen beiden.
Betrachten wir einmal, was mit dem Menschen vorgeht vom Moment des Einschlafens bis zum Moment des Erwachens. Diese Zeit stellt sich dar als eine Art Bewußtlosigkeitszustand. Nur spärliche, manchmal verworrene, manchmal klarere Erinnerungen an ein Traumbewußtsein tauchen auf. Um den Schlaf recht zu verstehen, müssen wir uns erinnern an die einzelnen Teile der menschlichen Wesenheit. Wir sahen, daß der Mensch aus sieben Gliedern besteht, von denen vier ganz entwickelt sind, das fünfte nur zum Teil, und daß vom sechsten und siebenten nur Keime und Anlagen vorhanden sind:
1. der physische Leib, den wir mit unseren Sinnen wahrnehmen
2. der Ätherleib, der fein leuchtend, durchlässig den ersten durchdringt
3. der Astralleib
4. der Ich-Leib oder Bewußtseinsleib.
In dem Ich-Leib ist enthalten:
5. das Geistselbst oder Manas, zum Teil entwickelt, zum Teil keimhaft
6. der Lebensgeist oder Budhi
7. der Geistesmensch oder Atma, die beiden letzteren aber nur im Keime.
Ein wacher Mensch hat die vier untersten Leiber in dem Raume, den er einnimmt. Der Ätherleib ragt an allen Seiten ein wenig aus dem physischen Leibe heraus. Der Astralleib ragt etwa zweieinhalb Kopflängen über den physischen Leib heraus, umgibt ihn wie eine Wolke und verliert sich nach unten hin. Wenn ein Mensch einschläft, dann bleibt im Bette liegen der physische Leib und der Ätherleib; sie bleiben miteinander so verbunden wie am Tage. Dagegen tritt eine Lockerung ein für den Astralkörper; es findet gleichsam ein Herausheben des Astralleibes und des Ich-Leibes aus dem physischen Leibe statt. Da nun alle Empfindungen, Vorstellungen und so weiter im Astralkörper bewirkt werden, dieser aber jetzt außerhalb des physischen Leibes ist, deshalb ist der Mensch im Schlafe bewußtlos; denn in diesem Leben braucht der Mensch, um bewußt zu werden, das physische Gehirn als Instrument. Ohne dieses kann der Mensch sich nicht bewußt werden.
Was macht nun der losgelöste Astralkörper während der Nacht? Der Hellseher kann beobachten, wie sich der Astralleib in der Nacht am Schläfer beschäftigt; er hat seine bestimmte Aufgabe. Nicht schwebt er, wie es oft von Theosophen gelehrt wird, tatenlos, träge, als ein untätiges Gebilde über dem Menschen, sondern er ist fortwährend am physischen Leibe tätig. Und was tut er? Der physische Leib wird während des Tages ermüdet, abgenutzt, und diese Abnützung, die Ermüdung, macht der Astralleib während der Nacht wieder gut. Der Astralleib bessert den physischen Leib nachts wieder aus und ersetzt die verbrauchten Kräfte. Daher die Notwendigkeit des Schlafes und daher auch das Erquickende, Erfrischende und Heilende des Schlafes. Wie es sich mit den Träumen verhält, davon werden wir später noch sprechen.
Wenn nun der Mensch stirbt, ist es anders. Dann trennen sich nicht bloß der Astralleib und der Ich-Leib von dem physischen Körper, sondern auch der Ätherleib. Diese drei Körper heben sich heraus und bleiben nach dem Tode des physischen Körpers noch eine Zeitlang zusammen. Die Erscheinung des Todes geht so vor sich, daß sich im Moment des Todes der Zusammenhang, der zwischen dem Äther- und Astralleib einerseits und dem physischen Leib anderseits besteht, namentlich im Herzen löst. Eine Art Aufleuchten findet statt im Herzen, und dann hebt sich über den Kopf heraus Ätherleib, Astralleib und Ich. Im Augenblick des Todes tritt aber für den Menschen etwas Merkwürdiges ein: Für eine kurze Spanne Zeit erinnert sich der Mensch aller seiner Erlebnisse im eben verflossenen Leben. Wie ein großes Tableau steht in einem einzigen Augenblick sein ganzes Leben vor seiner Seele. Etwas ähnliches geschieht bei Lebzeiten dem Menschen nur in sehr seltenen Fällen, und zwar dann, wenn er in Todesgefahr schwebt oder einen großen Schreck bekommt; zum Beispiel ein Ertrinkender, ein Abstürzender sieht im Moment der Todesnähe sein Leben vor seiner Seele stehen.
Eine andere ähnliche Erscheinung ist das eigentümliche, prikkelnde Gefühl, wenn ein Glied eingeschlafen ist. Woher kommt das? Das kommt durch eine Lockerung des Ätherleibes. Wenn ein Glied, zum Beispiel ein Finger, einschläft, dann sieht der Hellseher neben dem Finger einen Fingerling herausragen; das ist der Ätherleib, der sich an dieser Stelle gelockert hat und herausragt. Darin liegt auch die große Gefahr des Hypnotisierens, weil hierbei das Gehirn demselben Vorgang unterliegt wie der eingeschlafene Finger. Auf beiden Seiten des Kopfes sieht der Hellseher, wie zwei Lappen oder Säcke, den gelockerten Ätherleib heraushängen. Wird nun das Hypnotisieren häufig wiederholt, so entsteht die Neigung des Ätherleibes, sich zu lockern, die große Gefahren mit sich bringen kann. Die Betreffenden werden meist unfrei, träumerisch, haben Schwindelanfälle und so weiter. Eine solche Lockerung des ganzen Ätherkörpers findet statt in der Todesgefahr. Das hängt so zusammen: Der Ätherkörper ist der Träger des Gedächtnisses; je feiner der Ätherkörper, desto ausgebildeter, desto besser ist das Gedächtnis. Steckt nun der Ätherkörper in dem physischen Körper fest, wie dies beim gewöhnlichen Menschen der Fall ist, dann können seine Vibrationen nicht genügend auf das Gehirn wirken und dem Menschen zum Bewußtsein kommen, weil der physische Leib mit seinen gröberen Schwingungen sie gleichsam zudeckt. In Todesgefahr aber, wo sich der Ätherleib lockert, ist er mit seinen Erinnerungen vom Gehirn entlastet. Das ganze verflossene Leben steht einen Augenblick vor der Seele des Sterbenden. Im Moment also, wo der Ätherleib sich lockert, tritt alles hervor, was jemals in den Ätherleib hineingeschrieben worden ist. Daher auch die Erinnerung an das verflossene Leben unmittelbar nach dem Tode. Es dauert dann einige Zeit, bis sich der Ätherleib vom Astralleib und Ich trennt.
Beim gewöhnlichen Menschen löst sich der Ätherleib nach und nach im Weltenäther auf. Beim ungebildeten, noch tiefstehenden Menschen geht diese Auflösung des Ätherleibes langsam vor sich, beim Gebildeten rasch, beim Chela oder Schüler wieder langsam und immer langsamer, je höher der Mensch steigt, und endlich kommt ein Stadium in der Entwickelung, wo er sich überhaupt nicht mehr auflöst.
Nun haben wir beim gewöhnlichen Menschen schon zwei Leichname, den des physischen Körpers und den des Ätherleibes; es bleiben übrig Astralleib und Ich.
Wir müssen uns nun vergegenwärtigen, daß das ganze Bewußtsein des Menschen im irdischen Leben von seinen Sinnen abhängt. Wir werden uns eine Vorstellung machen können, wie anders der Bewußtseinszustand jetzt sein muß. Denken wir uns nach und nach alle Sinne dahinschwinden: Finsternis tritt ein nach Verlust der Augen, Tonlosigkeit nach Verlust der Ohren, weder Kälte noch Wärme gibt es nach Verlust des entsprechenden Sinnes. Was bleibt nun von dem, was die Seele belebt, was das Tagesbewußitsein erfüllt, was wir dem Körper verdanken von früh bis spät, nun, wo alle physischen Organe fehlen? Der seelische Inhalt; und gerade, wenn wir uns das klarmachen, werden wir begreifen, wie der Lebenszustand ist nach dem Tode, wenn der Mensch diese beiden Leichname abgelegt hat.
Man nennt diesen Zustand Kamaloka, das heißt Begierdenorrt. Aber das ist kein Ort irgendwo draußen, nein, wo wir sind, ist auch Kamaloka, und fortwährend umschweben uns und leben um uns die Geister der Verstorbenen. Aber dem physischen Menschen entgeht deren Anwesenheit. Wie empfindet nun ein Toter? Ein einfacher Fall wird uns das klarmachen: Ein Mensch ißt mit Begierde und wirklichem Genuß. Der Hellseher sieht bei ihm im oberen Teil seines Astralleibes die Befriedigung des Genusses als eine bräunlichrote Gedankenform. Nun stirbt dieser Mensch; was ihm erhalten bleibt, ist die Begierde und Genußfähigkeit. An dem Physischen haftet nur das Physische, das Material des Genusses; wir müssen einen Gaumen und so weiter haben, um essen zu können. Der Genuß und die Begierde aber sind etwas Seelisches; daher bleiben Genußfähigkeit und Begierde auch nach dem Tode. Nur hat der Mensch dann keine Möglichkeit mehr, die Begierde zu befriedigen, denn die Organe zur Befriedigung fehlen. So ist es mit allen Genüssen und Wünschen: Es hat einer Begierde nach schönen Farbenzusammenstellungen - es fehlen die Augen; nach harmonischer Musik — es fehlen die Ohren.
Wie kommt das der Seele nach dem Tode zum Bewußtsein? Wie ein Wüstenwanderer, von brennendem Durst gepeinigt, umherirrt und eine Quelle sucht, um den Durst zu löschen, so leidet die Seele brennenden Durst, weil sie keine Organe, keine Werkzeuge zur Befriedigung mehr hat. Sie muß alles entbehren, daher ist «brennender Durst» eine sehr treffende Bezeichnung, und gerade darin drückt sich der Zustand von Kamaloka aus. Es ist das nicht eine Quälerei von außen, sondern die Qual der Unerfüllbarkeit der noch vorhandenen Genußfähigkeit.
Warum muß die Seele diese Qual leiden? Damit der Mensch sich nach und nach diese sinnlichen Begierden und Wünsche abgewöhnt, damit die Seele sich loslöse von der Erde, sich läutere und reinige. Wenn es so weit ist, dann ist die Kamaloka-Zeit zu Ende, dann steigt der Mensch auf zum Devachan.
Wie durchlebt nun die Seele das Leben im Kamaloka? Der Mensch durchlebt im Kamaloka noch einmal sein ganzes Leben, aber er durchlebt es rückwärts. Er durchläuft die ganze Lebenszeit von der Todesstunde bis zur Geburt rückwärts, Tag für Tag mit allen Erlebnissen, Geschehnissen und Taten. Und was ist der Sinn davon? Es hat den Sinn, daß er sozusagen bei jedem Ereignis Halt macht, um sich das Hängen am Physisch-Materiellen abzugewöhnen. Er durchlebt nochmals alle Genüsse, aber so, daß er sie entbehren muß, daß er sie nicht befriedigen kann. Dadurch gewöhnt er sich heraus aus dem physischen Leben. Und wenn er so sein Leben durchlebt hat bis zur Geburt, dann kann er, mit den biblischen Worten, eingehen in das «Reich der Himmel», wie Christus sagt: «So ihr nicht werdet wie die Kindlein, könnt ihr nicht kommen in die Reiche der Himmel.» Alle Evangelienworte sind sehr tief, und man lernt ihre Tiefe kennen, wenn man nach und nach in die göttliche Weisheit eindringt.
Einzelne Momente müssen wir noch herausheben aus diesem Kamaloka-Leben, die besonders wichtig und lehrreich sind.
Zu den verschiedenen Gefühlen, die dem Menschen im Leben anhaften, gehört besonders das eigentliche Daseinsgefühl, das Lebensgefühl, die Freude am Leben überhaupt, am Drinnenstecken im physischen Körper. Darum ist es eine Hauptentbehrung, keinen physischen Körper mehr zu haben. Wir werden nun dadurch das furchtbare Schicksal und die entsetzlichen Qualen jener Unglücklichen verstehen, welche durch Selbstmord aus dem Leben scheiden. Beim natürlichen Tod ist die Trennung der drei Körper verhältnismäßig eine leichte. Selbst bei Schlagfluß oder sonst einer schnellen natürlichen Todesart ist in Wirklichkeit schon längst die Trennung dieser höheren Glieder voneinander vorbereitet worden; sie trennen sich leicht, und die Entbehrung des physischen Leibes ist dann nur eine sehr geringe. Aber bei einer so gewaltsamen plötzlichen Trennung vom Körper wie bei einem Selbstmörder, wo noch alles gesund ist und noch fest zusammenhält, da tritt unmittelbar nach dem Tode eine starke Entbehrung des physischen Körpers auf, die furchtbare Leiden verursacht. Es ist ein furchtbares Schicksal. Der Selbstmörder fühlt sich wie ausgehöhlt und beginnt nun ein grausiges Suchen nach dem so plötzlich entzogenen physischen Körper. Nichts läßt sich damit vergleichen.
Es wird nun mancher sagen: Der Lebensüberdrüssige hängt ja gar nicht mehr am Leben, sonst hätte er es sich nicht genommen. — Das ist eine Täuschung, denn gerade der Selbstmörder hängt zu sehr am Leben; weil es ihm aber die Befriedigung gewohnter Genüsse nicht mehr bietet, weil es ihm vielleicht durch veränderte Verhältnisse manches versagt, darum geht er in den Tod, und darum ist ihm nun die Entbehrung des physischen Körpers unsagbar groß.
Aber nicht für alle ist das Kamaloka-Leben so schwer. Wer weniger an materiellen Genüssen hing, für den ist natürlich auch das Abgewöhnen, die Entbehrung keine so schwere. Aber auch er muß ganz heraus aus seinem physischen Leben, denn das KamalokaLeben hat noch einen anderen Sinn.
Der Mensch vollbringt während seines Lebens nicht nur solche Dinge, welche Genuß bereiten, sondern er lebt hier zusammen mit anderen Menschen und Geschöpfen; bewußt oder unbewußt, absichtlich oder unabsichtlich verursacht er Menschen und Tieren Freude und Leid, Lust und Schmerz. Auch das trifft man wieder beim Durchlaufen der Kamaloka-Zeit. Man kommt zurück an die Stelle, den Ort und Moment, wo man den anderen Wesen Schmerz bereitete. Damals machte man den Schmerz anderen fühlbar, nunmehr muß man dieselben Schmerzen in der eigenen Seele erleiden. All die Qualen, die ich je einem anderen Wesen bereitet habe, muß ich nun in der eigenen Seele durchmachen. Ich stecke gleichsam in dem Menschen, in dem Tiere drinnen und lerne kennen, was das andere Wesen durch mich gelitten hat, und nun muß ich alle diese Qualen und Schmerzen selbst erleiden. Dem kann man nicht entgehen. Das ist aber nicht etwa die Wirkung von Karma, sondern nur das Loslösen vom Irdischen. Ganz besonders fürchterlich ist dadurch das Kamaloka des Vivisektors. Der Theosoph darf nicht Kritik üben an dem, was die Welterscheinungen bieten, wohl aber kann er begreifen, wie der moderne Mensch zu solchen Dingen kommen konnte. Im Mittelalter würde kein Mensch daran gedacht haben, und in alter Zeit würde es jeder Arzt für den größten Unsinn gehalten haben, das Leben zu zerstören, um das Leben kennenzulernen, denn wahr ist es, daß noch im Mittelalter ein großer Teil der Menschen hellsehend war und die Ärzte den Menschen durchschauen konnten und sahen, was in ihm beschädigt war und was ihm fehlte. So zum Beispiel Paracelsus; er durchschaute den physischen Leib. Aber die Zeit der materiellen Kultur mußte kommen, wo das Hellsehen verlorenging. Namentlich bei den heutigen Ärzten und Naturforschern sehen wir dies, und die Vivisektion war eine Folge davon. Somit ist sie zu begreifen, aber niemals zu entschuldigen oder zu rechtfertigen. Unfehlbar treten die Folgen eines solchen Qualen verursachenden Lebens ein: Der Vivisektor muß nach dem Tode selbst genau alle die Qualen durchmachen, die er den Tieren zugefügt hat, seine Seele steckt gleichsam drinnen in jedem Schmerz, den er bereitet hat. Seine Absichtslosigkeit, das Vorschieben der Wissenschaft, «der gute Zweck», sind keine Entschuldigungen. Das Gesetz des geistigen Lebens ist unbeugsam.
Wie lange bleibt nun der Mensch in Kamaloka? Ein Drittel seiner Lebenszeit. Wurde der Mensch fünfündsiebzig Jahre alt, so dauert der Aufenthalt in Kamaloka etwa fünfundzwanzig Jahre.
Was geschieht dann? Die Astralkörper der Menschen sind sehr verschieden in Farbe und Form. Der Astralkörper eines niedrigstehenden Menschen ist durchdrungen von allen möglichen Gebilden, von niederen Trieben; er hat eine rötlich-graue Grundfarbe mit rötlich-grauen Ausstrahlungen und unterscheidet sich in der Form nicht von gewissen Tieren. Ganz anders ist es bei einem Gebildeten oder gar bei einem Idealisten wie Schiller, oder bei einem Heiligen wie Franz von Assisi; sie versagten sich manches, veredelten ihre Triebe und so weiter. Je mehr aber der Mensch von seinem Ich aus an sich arbeitet, desto mehr Strahlungen gehen aus von der bläulichen Kugel, dem Ich-Zentrum; diese Strahlungen bedeuten Kräfte, durch die der Mensch den Astralkörper in seine Gewalt bekommt. Daher kann man sagen: Der Mensch hat zwei Astralleiber, einen Teil, der mit den tierischen Begierden geblieben ist, und einen anderen Teil, den der Mensch selbst hineingearbeitet hat.
Wenn der Mensch seine Kamaloka-Zeit durchgemacht hat, dann ist er reif, den veredelten Teil seines Astralkörpers herauszuheben aus dem niederen. Dieser niedere Teil bleibt zurück, und was er aus sich gemacht hat, das zieht er heraus. Beim Wilden und wenig kultivierten Menschen bleibt ein großer Teil als niederer Astralleib zurück, beim Gebildeten weniger. Wenn zum Beispiel ein Franz von Assisi stirbt, bleibt sehr wenig zurück, und ein mächtiger, hoher Astralleib wird herausgezogen, denn er hat viel an sich gearbeitet. Das, was zurückbleibt, ist der dritte Leichnam des Menschen: die niederen Triebe und Instinkte, die der Mensch noch nicht veredelt hat. Dieser Leichnam schwebt fortan überall im Astralraum umher, und mancher schädliche Einfluß geht von ihm aus.
Das ist auch ein Zweites, was in spiritistischen Sitzungen erscheinen kann. Dieser Astralleichnam bleibt nämlich oft lange Zeit erhalten und kann sich mittels eines Mediums kundgeben, und oft glauben die Leute dann, es sei der Verstorbene selbst; es ist aber nur sein Astralleichnam. Wie in einer Hülse enthält er dessen niedere Triebe und Gewohnheiten; er kann auf Befragen auch Antwort geben, er kann Auskunft erteilen und kann ebenso vernünftig reden und sein, wie der niedere Mensch vernünftig war. Viele Verwechslungen kommen dadurch vor. Ein eklatantes Beispiel bietet die Broschüre des Spiritisten Langsdorff, in der er behauptet, eine Zusammenkunft mit A.P.B. gehabt zu haben. Auf Langsdorff wirkt nämlich die Idee der Wiederverkörperung wie das rote Tuch auf den Stier; er möchte alles in Bewegung setzen, um diese Lehre zu widerlegen. Er haßt H.P.B,., weil sie diese Lehre gelehrt und verbreitet hat. Nun berichtet er in dieser Broschüre, daß er H.P.B. zitierte und daß sie ihm sagte, daß nicht nur die Reinkarnationslehre falsch sei, sondern auch, wie sehr sie es bedaure, dieselbe gelehrt zu haben. Das kann alles richtig sein, nur daß Langsdorff nicht H. P. B., sondern deren niederen Astralleichnam zitiert und befragt hat. Und daß dieser niedere Astralleichnam von H.P.B. derartig antwortete, ist jetzt ganz begreiflich, wenn man weiß, daß sie in der ersten Zeit ihrer Entwickelung in der «Isis Unveiled» wirklich die Wiederverkörperungslehre verwarf und bekämpfte. Sie selbst stieg in ihrer Erkenntnis, aber ihr Irrtum blieb mit der astralen Hülle zurück.
Dieser dritte Leichnam, die Astralhülle, löst sich nach und nach auf, und es ist wichtig, daß er ganz aufgelöst ist, wenn der Mensch wiederum zu einer neuen Verkörperung zurückkommt. In den allermeisten Fällen tritt das auch zu. Aber es gibt Ausnahmen, wo ein Mensch sich schnell wiederverkörpert, ehe sein astraler Leichnam zerronnen ist. Das gibt dann für diesen Menschen schwierige Lagen, wenn er bei seiner Wiederverkörperung seinen eigenen Astralleichnam noch vorfindet, der alles das noch enthält, was in seinem vorigen Leben noch unvollkommen war.
Third Lecture
What is the state of human beings between death and rebirth?
Death is rightly called the older brother of sleep, for there is a certain kinship between sleep and death. But there is also a great and tremendous difference between the two.
Let us consider what happens to human beings from the moment they fall asleep to the moment they wake up. This time is represented as a kind of unconscious state. Only sparse, sometimes confused, sometimes clearer memories of dream consciousness emerge. In order to understand sleep properly, we must remember the individual parts of the human being. We have seen that human beings consist of seven members, four of which are fully developed, the fifth only partially developed, and the sixth and seventh only present as germs and potentialities:
1. the physical body, which we perceive with our senses
2. the etheric body, which is finely luminous and permeates the first
3. the astral body
4. the ego body or consciousness body.
The ego body contains:
5. the spirit self or manas, partly developed, partly embryonic
6. the life spirit or budhi
7. the spirit man or atma, but the latter two only in embryonic form.
An awake person has the four lowest bodies in the space they occupy. The etheric body protrudes slightly from the physical body on all sides. The astral body protrudes about two and a half head lengths above the physical body, surrounding it like a cloud and fading away towards the bottom. When a person falls asleep, the physical body and the etheric body remain in bed; they remain connected to each other as they are during the day. In contrast, the astral body becomes loosened; the astral body and the I-body are lifted out of the physical body, as it were. Since all sensations, ideas, and so on are produced in the astral body, but this is now outside the physical body, the person is unconscious during sleep; for in this life, the person needs the physical brain as an instrument in order to become conscious. Without it, the person cannot become conscious.
What does the detached astral body do during the night? The clairvoyant can observe how the astral body is busy with the sleeper at night; it has its specific task. It does not float, as is often taught by theosophists, idle, sluggish, as an inactive entity above the human being, but is constantly active on the physical body. And what does it do? The physical body becomes tired and worn out during the day, and the astral body makes up for this wear and tear, this fatigue, during the night. The astral body repairs the physical body at night and replaces the depleted energies. Hence the necessity of sleep and hence also the refreshing, invigorating, and healing qualities of sleep. We will talk about dreams later.
When a person dies, it is different. Then not only the astral body and the ego body separate from the physical body, but also the etheric body. These three bodies lift themselves out and remain together for a while after the death of the physical body. The phenomenon of death occurs in such a way that at the moment of death, the connection between the etheric and astral bodies on the one hand and the physical body on the other, namely in the heart, is dissolved. A kind of illumination takes place in the heart, and then the etheric body, astral body, and ego rise above the head. At the moment of death, however, something remarkable happens to the human being: for a brief moment, the person remembers all their experiences in the life that has just passed. Like a large tableau, their entire life stands before their soul in a single moment. Something similar happens to people during their lifetime only in very rare cases, namely when they are in mortal danger or experience a great shock; for example, a drowning person or someone falling from a height sees their life before their soul at the moment of approaching death.
Another similar phenomenon is the peculiar, tingling sensation when a limb has fallen asleep. Where does this come from? It comes from a loosening of the etheric body. When a limb, for example a finger, falls asleep, the clairvoyant sees a fingerling protruding next to the finger; this is the etheric body, which has loosened at this point and protrudes. This is also where the great danger of hypnosis lies, because in this case the brain is subject to the same process as the fallen asleep finger. On both sides of the head, the clairvoyant sees the loosened etheric body hanging out like two flaps or sacs. If hypnotism is repeated frequently, the etheric body tends to loosen, which can entail great dangers. Those affected usually become unfree, dreamy, have dizzy spells, and so on. Such a loosening of the entire etheric body occurs in the face of mortal danger. This is related as follows: the etheric body is the carrier of memory; the finer the etheric body, the more developed it is, the better the memory. If the etheric body is stuck in the physical body, as is the case with ordinary human beings, then its vibrations cannot sufficiently affect the brain and come to the person's consciousness, because the physical body with its coarser vibrations covers them, as it were. In the face of death, however, when the etheric body loosens, it is relieved of its memories by the brain. The whole of the past life stands before the soul of the dying person for a moment. So at the moment when the etheric body loosens, everything that has ever been written into the etheric body comes to the fore. Hence the memory of the past life immediately after death. It then takes some time for the etheric body to separate from the astral body and the ego.
In ordinary human beings, the etheric body gradually dissolves into the world ether. In uneducated, still low-level human beings, this dissolution of the etheric body proceeds slowly; in educated human beings, it proceeds rapidly; in chelas or disciples, it proceeds slowly again and becomes slower and slower the higher the human being rises, until finally a stage of development is reached where it no longer dissolves at all.
Now, in the ordinary human being, we already have two corpses, that of the physical body and that of the etheric body; what remains are the astral body and the I.
We must now realize that the entire consciousness of the human being in earthly life depends on his senses. We can imagine how different the state of consciousness must now be. Let us imagine all the senses gradually disappearing: darkness sets in after the loss of the eyes, soundlessness after the loss of the ears, neither cold nor heat exist after the loss of the corresponding sense. What remains of what animates the soul, what fills our daily consciousness, what we owe to the body from morning till night, now that all physical organs are gone? The soul's content; and it is precisely when we realize this that we will understand what the state of life is like after death, when the human being has shed these two corpses.
This state is called Kamaloka, which means “desire realm.” But this is not a place somewhere out there; no, Kamaloka is also where we are, and the spirits of the deceased constantly surround us and live among us. But the physical human being is unaware of their presence. How does a dead person feel? A simple case will make this clear to us: a person eats with desire and real enjoyment. The clairvoyant sees the satisfaction of enjoyment in the upper part of his astral body as a brownish-red thought form. Now this person dies; what remains with him is desire and the capacity for enjoyment. Only the physical, the material of enjoyment, clings to the physical; we must have a palate and so on in order to be able to eat. But enjoyment and desire are something spiritual; therefore, the capacity for enjoyment and desire remain even after death. Only then the person no longer has the opportunity to satisfy their desire, because the organs for satisfaction are missing. This is the case with all pleasures and desires: there is a desire for beautiful color combinations—but the eyes are missing; for harmonious music—but the ears are missing.
How does the soul become aware of this after death? Like a desert wanderer tormented by burning thirst, wandering around and searching for a spring to quench his thirst, the soul suffers burning thirst because it no longer has any organs or tools for satisfaction. It must do without everything, which is why “burning thirst” is a very apt description, and this is precisely what expresses the state of Kamaloka. It is not a torment from outside, but the torment of the unfulfillability of the still existing capacity for enjoyment.
Why must the soul suffer this torment? So that the human being gradually weans himself off these sensual desires and wishes, so that the soul detaches itself from the earth, purifies and cleanses itself. When this is achieved, the Kamaloka period comes to an end and the human being ascends to Devachan.
How does the soul experience life in Kamaloka? In Kamaloka, the human being relives his entire life, but he relives it backwards. He goes through his entire lifetime from the hour of death back to birth, day by day, with all his experiences, events, and deeds. And what is the meaning of this? The meaning is that he stops at every event, so to speak, in order to wean himself from his attachment to the physical and material. He relives all the pleasures, but in such a way that he must do without them, that he cannot satisfy them. In this way, he weans himself from physical life. And when he has lived through his life in this way until birth, then he can, in the words of the Bible, enter the “kingdom of heaven,” as Christ says: “Unless you become like little children, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.” All the words of the Gospels are very profound, and one comes to know their depth when one gradually penetrates into divine wisdom.
We must still highlight individual moments from this Kamaloka life that are particularly important and instructive.
Among the various feelings that cling to human beings in life is, in particular, the actual feeling of existence, the feeling of life, the joy of life in general, of being inside the physical body. That is why it is a major deprivation to no longer have a physical body. We will now understand the terrible fate and the appalling torments of those unfortunate people who take their own lives. In natural death, the separation of the three bodies is relatively easy. Even in the case of a stroke or other rapid natural death, the separation of these higher members from each other has in reality long been prepared; they separate easily, and the deprivation of the physical body is then only very slight. But in the case of such a violent and sudden separation from the body as in the case of a suicide, where everything is still healthy and still firmly held together, immediately after death there is a strong deprivation of the physical body, which causes terrible suffering. It is a terrible fate. The suicide feels hollowed out and begins a gruesome search for the physical body that has been so suddenly taken away. Nothing can compare to it.
Some will now say: Those who are weary of life are no longer attached to life, otherwise they would not have taken it. — That is a delusion, for it is precisely the suicide who is too attached to life; but because it no longer offers him the satisfaction of his accustomed pleasures, because it perhaps denies him many things due to changed circumstances, he goes to his death, and that is why the deprivation of the physical body is now unspeakably great for him.
But not everyone finds life in Kamaloka so difficult. For those who were less attached to material pleasures, weaning themselves off them and the deprivation is naturally not so difficult. But even they must leave their physical life completely behind, because life in Kamaloka has another purpose.
During their life, people do not only do things that give them pleasure, but they also live here together with other people and creatures; consciously or unconsciously, intentionally or unintentionally, they cause joy and suffering, pleasure and pain to people and animals. This is also encountered when passing through the Kamaloka period. One returns to the place and moment where one caused pain to other beings. At that time, one made others feel pain, but now one must suffer the same pain in one's own soul. All the torments I have ever caused another being, I must now go through in my own soul. I am, as it were, inside the human being or animal and learn what the other being suffered through me, and now I must suffer all these torments and pains myself. There is no escape from this. However, this is not the effect of karma, but only the detachment from the earthly. This makes the kamaloka of the vivisector particularly terrible. Theosophists should not criticize what the world offers, but they can understand how modern man could have come to such things. In the Middle Ages, no one would have thought of it, and in ancient times, every physician would have considered it utter nonsense to destroy life in order to learn about life, for it is true that even in the Middle Ages, a large part of humanity was clairvoyant, and physicians could see through people and see what was damaged and what was lacking in them. Paracelsus, for example, could see through the physical body. But the age of material culture had to come, and clairvoyance was lost. We see this particularly in today's doctors and natural scientists, and vivisection was a consequence of this. Thus, it can be understood, but never excused or justified. The consequences of such a life of torment are inevitable: after death, the vivisector himself must undergo all the torments he inflicted on the animals; his soul is, as it were, trapped in every pain he caused. His lack of intent, the pretext of science, “the good cause,” are no excuses. The law of spiritual life is unyielding.
How long does a person remain in Kamaloka? One third of their lifetime. If a person lived to be seventy-five years old, their stay in Kamaloka will last about twenty-five years.
What happens then? People's astral bodies vary greatly in color and shape. The astral body of a low-minded person is permeated with all kinds of formations, with base instincts; it has a reddish-gray base color with reddish-gray emanations and does not differ in form from certain animals. It is quite different with an educated person or even an idealist like Schiller, or a saint like Francis of Assisi; they denied themselves many things, refined their instincts, and so on. But the more a person works on themselves from their ego, the more rays emanate from the bluish sphere, the ego center; these rays represent forces through which the person gains control of the astral body. Therefore, it can be said that man has two astral bodies, one part that has remained with animal desires, and another part that man himself has worked into it.
When man has gone through his Kamaloka period, he is ready to lift the refined part of his astral body out of the lower part. This lower part remains behind, and what they have made of themselves, they draw out. In the case of savage and uncultivated people, a large part remains behind as a lower astral body; in the case of educated people, less. When, for example, Francis of Assisi dies, very little remains behind, and a powerful, high astral body is drawn out, because he has worked hard on himself. What remains is the third corpse of the human being: the lower drives and instincts that the human being has not yet refined. From then on, this corpse floats around everywhere in the astral space, and many harmful influences emanate from it.
This is also a second thing that can appear in spiritualist séances. This astral corpse often remains for a long time and can make itself known through a medium, and people often believe that it is the deceased person himself; but it is only his astral corpse. Like a shell, it contains the deceased's base instincts and habits; it can also answer questions, provide information, and speak and behave as rationally as the base human being was rational. This leads to many misunderstandings. A striking example is provided by the brochure by the spiritualist Langsdorff, in which he claims to have had a meeting with A.P.B. For Langsdorff, the idea of reincarnation is like a red rag to a bull; he wants to do everything in his power to refute this doctrine. He hates H.P.B. because she taught and spread this doctrine. Now, in this pamphlet, he reports that he quoted H.P.B. and that she told him not only that the doctrine of reincarnation was false, but also how much she regretted having taught it. All of this may be true, except that Langsdorff did not quote and question H.P.B., but rather her lower astral corpse. And that this lower astral corpse of H.P.B. answered in this way is now quite understandable when one knows that in the early stages of her development in Isis Unveiled she really rejected and fought against the doctrine of reincarnation. She herself rose in her knowledge, but her error remained with the astral shell.
This third corpse, the astral shell, gradually dissolves, and it is important that it be completely dissolved when the human being returns to a new incarnation. In most cases, this is what happens. But there are exceptions where a person reincarnates quickly before their astral corpse has dissolved. This then creates difficult situations for this person when, upon reincarnation, they still find their own astral corpse, which still contains everything that was imperfect in their previous life.